Contributions

Our contributions to the Thanksgiving dinner yesterday included a lemon meringue pie from scratch (thanks to Bryan),

a double batch of homemade rolls (thanks to me),

cranberry sauce,

sweet potatoes, and several pumpkin pies. When we got there we volunteered to make the mashed potatoes. I cooked them, Bryan worked his magic to make them delicious.

It was nice to only make part of the meal, but I have missed all the after Thanksgiving leftovers today. Thankfully Jordan sent us home with a bag of delicious turkey, which we enjoyed on leftover rolls.

Three Out of Five

We just got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving at my brother's house. We spent the whole day cooking, eating, talking, and laughing. It was a great day. We were on our way home before I realized I hadn't gotten a picture of me with my two siblings that were there. We turned the car around and went back.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Peppermint Patty

Yesterday Bryan, Topher, Sophie, and I got to see Phoebe perform in two Thanksgiving themed reader's theaters. She played a senator in the first and did a great job. She played Peppermint Patty of Peanuts fame in the second. She stole every scene she was in. She had fantastic stage presence and hilarious line execution.

Bryan recorded both performances, so if any grandparent (or anyone else) would like to see those, let me know and we'll share them. Otherwise, enjoy these short clips that I filmed at home last night. These are the two phone calls that Peppermint Patty makes to Charlie Brown. She's even still in costume.

Calling In Sick

On Saturday one of my children flopped into a chair and announced they couldn't do their chores because they had PTSD as a result of me asking them to mop the kitchen floor.

We had words about what PTSD actually is and what it is not.

They mopped the floor.

Well Shod

Many years ago I bought The Most Comfortable Shoes Ever. They were moccasins lined with what felt like soft, warm, lamb's wool on the inside. And they were black, which is my favorite color to wear. I loved them so much that I wore them into the ground. When that happened I did the only sensible thing I could think of: I bought another pair of the exact same shoe.

I've never been one to spend lots of money on shoes, so Payless was my footwear store of choice. When they announced they were going out of business, I had two thoughts: 1. But I've always bought my kids' shoes from Payless! followed closely by 2. WHERE WILL I BUY MY MOCCASINS?!

You can imagine my relief when I discovered a very similar pair of black moccasins at Target. I bought them, of course. I've gotten many comments on these shoes, "those are cute," "those look so comfortable," "wow, it's almost like you're wearing slippers!" Oh no, I assure them, they look like slippers, but they're really just comfortable shoes.

I was at Target again this morning, perusing the shoe section in the hopes of replacing my black ballet flats that I've worn holes into. After walking through the aisles, searching for church shoes, I looked up and discovered my moccasins, a brand new version of what I had on my feet at that very moment. I walked over and smiled at them gratefully. That's when I realized they were displayed with slippers on either side. Huh, I thought, that's weird. I walked up and turned the tag for the moccasins over in my hand to get more information.

You guys, I've been wearing slippers as shoes for at least a year.

I'm equal parts embarrassed for my shoe mistake and also wondering if I can keep wearing them since they're so very comfortable.

He Wasn't Grumpy

But he was making a funny face  after dinner tonight.

Don't Lose Your Head

Phoebe has participated in several one acts and reader's theaters at school this year. She often has speaking parts, but her contribution today was less chatty and decidedly more sinister. Here she is, trying out her costume for the role of The Headless Horseman. We put this together this morning before school after she informed me yesterday that she needed the costume. Thank goodness for a well stocked costume box and a generous friend with a toy horse.

Don't worry, she wore black pants for the actual performance.

It's All Relative

Topher really loves shoes. He's entered that phase where he wants to try on every shoe he sees. He's worn Bryan's shoes, my shoes,  and Sophie's tap shoes, among many others.

Being the youngest in the house means he can fit into all the shoes, right? Not quite...

Secret Identity

Topher and I tidied up a bit while the big kids were at school today. We were in the boys' room when I heard Topher say one of his favorite words, "Dada! Dada!" I looked over to see if he'd found a picture of Bryan. This is what he was excitedly pointing to:

He's not wrong.

Flu Season

Sophie missed two days of school last week because of a fever. It wasn't until Friday afternoon when she said her throat hurt that I looked at it. Her tonsils were enormous. I called our doctor and got the last appointment available. The good news is that it wasn't strep throat. The bad news is that it was the flu.

The doctor gave her Tamiflu and offered a prophylactic dose for the rest of us. I said yes. The hardest part about this arrangement is that it "tastes like moldy bananas" according to Sophie and Cooper literally threw up yesterday while trying to take it. Serving it in chocolate milk tonight didn't help at all. But, so far, most of us are still healthy.

Except for Topher. Because if there's something to be caught, Topher is going to catch it. We suspect he had it before Sophie, but his symptoms overlapped with the case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth he was getting over. The poor kid hasn't been to church since October.

Sophie felt well enough today that she went back to school. Topher, on the other hand, fell asleep taking the kids to the bus stop in the morning, a full three hours earlier than he's supposed to nap. He woke up when we got home, but was asleep on my shoulder a few minutes later.

We had had a really rough night last night, so I was extremely worn out. We both ended up taking a four-hour nap and didn't wake up until noon. Topher felt significantly better after that. So did I.

I'm hoping he gets better quickly and that we can stop the germs from spreading to the rest of us.

Go, Fight, Win!

Every year the middle school in town holds a powder puff flag football game to raise money for charity. They invite the eighth grade girls to be the football players and the eighth grade boys to be cheerleaders. That is why we got very bundled up in warm clothes last night and braved cold temperatures to watch Peter in a tutu.

It was fun watching Peter. Most of us had no idea what was happening in the game, but we weren't there for them anyway. We decided to take two cars, just in case anyone needed to go home early. It was a good plan. Sophie and Topher made it through most of halftime (and all of Peter's dance routine) before they were done. I took them home and did bedtime; Bryan, Phoebe, and Cooper stayed and waited for Peter.

We had fun, can you tell?

He Found the Apples

Conditional Friendship

"Cooper! You're me best friend! But only for this song." -Sophie, very serious, just before grabbing Cooper's hands and singing the chorus of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance, a song she said she knew from her dance class.

Hard vs. Soft

For part of our Come, Follow Me lesson last week we talked about not having hard hearts, being teachable. While I told the story of the Israelites having to wander in the wilderness for forty years because of their hard hearts, the kids used play-doh to create their own soft hearts. Some of them had really soft play-doh that was easy to mold, some of them had harder play-doh that took more effort.

Then we used a rock and a washcloth to demonstrate the difference between a soft heart and a hard heart. I got a dropper of water and told the kids that the drops of water represented the truths of the Gospel. When I dripped it onto the rock, the water slipped off. We talked about erosion, so that over a long period of time, bits of the hard rock (or hard heart) will chip off, but it's a long hard process. The washcloth, the soft heart, soaked the water right up, showing that a soft heart is much more able to take in the truths of the Gospel.

The kids enjoyed the lesson.

Topher thought the play-doh was delicious.

Animals Assemble

Cooper did some drawing last night and this morning. I asked if I could put it on the blog and he said yes, but made sure I knew he had followed instructions from a drawing book. I asked if he'd traced it, he said he traced the initial circles, but that was it. I'm very impressed.

He said these are warrior animals, so it felt like an appropriate picture for Veteran's Day.

Own It

Sophie was rough with Topher yesterday and was sent to The Calm Down Spot, also known as The Timeout Spot. She was not pleased and thought it was terribly unjust that she was getting a consequence. She insisted she hadn't done anything wrong.

Me: Sophie, you manhandled him like he was a thing!

Sophie: I don't manhandle him like a thing! I manhandle him like a person!

Well, at least she owned it.

This Girl Is On Fire

I know it was a week ago, but I finally got a picture of my sister and niece in their Halloween costumes. Paige found Emma's unicorn pajamas, but she didn't have anything for herself. I brainstormed a mythical creature that would fit into our theme. I'm pretty pleased with how her phoenix costume turned out, even if nobody could tell what she was.

I made the wings by duct taping two wire hangers together, wrapping the exposed wire in tulle, creating the fire/feather look with strips of tulle, then using a red feather boa to tie them onto Paige.

Phoebe designed Paige's feathered headband, I think she did a fabulous job.

And I'm including one picture to show just how huge my fairy skirt was. It took two hours to create. Apparently this Halloween was brought to you by tulle.

The Whole Gang

Paige and Emma headed off on the next leg of their adventure today. That meant we had to take some going away pictures last night.

We love you guys, thanks for visiting!

Cousin Fun

Guest of Honor

My sister and her daughter are visiting. The kids love having Emma here. Emma seems to be pretty fond of the kids too.

Canned

Our development switched to a new trash collection company. The new trashcans were delivered today. Peter and Cooper tried them out while they were still clean.